Accused murderer indicted

Oct. 31, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - A grand jury handed down a six-count indictment Thursday, including first-degree murder, for a Tatitlek man who police say fatally stabbed his wife on Oct. 21.

Matthew A. Kompkoff, 24, faces five additional charges including two charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and first-degree assault for the death of Kelly Kompkoff.

Kelly Kompkoff was stabbed more than once, but a wound to her upper right chest was the one that was serious enough to cause internal injuries, said Roman Kalytiak, district attorney, who presented the case to the grand jury.

In a phone interview, Kalytiak said Matthew and Kelly Kompkoff had been a couple for about nine years and had children together, although he didn't know how many children or their ages.

The Kompkoffs married in September, he said.

Kelly Kompkoff was at home, with her cousin, Teresa Totemoff, getting ready to go on a business trip, Kalytiak said. Witnesses were consistent in saying Matthew Kompkoff had been drinking, he said.

When Matthew Kompkoff returned to the house, he got in an argument with Kelly, Kalytiak said, and Totemoff told officials it looked like Matthew punched Kelly at one point, but Kelly hunched over and as they began to remove her clothing, they saw the blood from the stab wound, he said.

Matthew Kompkoff also used the folding knife with the 3- to 4-inch blade to cut himself, Kalytiak said. Matthew Kompkoff left the house and was found by his sister in a steam bath.

The couple was taken to Valdez in the same boat, and both were treated at the local hospital, he said.

Kelly Kompkoff then was taken in an ambulance to the airport to wait for a plane that would take her to Anchorage.

&#8220Only surgery would have saved her,” Kalytiak said.

Kelly Kompkoff died Oct. 22, waiting for that life-saving flight.

Matthew Kompkoff remains in jail in Valdez. At Kompkoff's Friday bail hearing, Kalytiak and the Palmer public defender's office spoke by phone to the judge in Valdez. Kompkoff requested release to the custody of his mother, Kalytiak said.

But the judge denied Kompkoff's release, concerned with the mother's age, her difficulty hearing and the fact that his father needed to be sedated because of the tragedy, he said.

The judge also set bail at $50,000 cash.

Valdez court records show Matthew Kompkoff pleaded no contest to fourth-degree assault in 2003, disorderly conduct and contempt of court in 2004.

On Oct. 22, 2005, exactly one year before the day his wife died from wounds he is said to have inflicted, Matthew Kompkoff was charged with domestic violence, fourth-degree assault.

All of Kompkoff's prior charges involved drinking alcohol and aggressive behavior, Kalytiak said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.